Three Uncertain Locations

CNG 88, Lot: 1112. Estimate $1000. Sold for $850. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

UNCERTAIN. Augustus, with Divus Julius Caesar. 27 BC-AD 14. Æ (20mm, 5.77 g, 6h). Bare head of Divus Julius right / Bare head of Augustus right. RPC 5421; BMC Macedonia 61 (Thessalonica). EF, green patina, roughness on obverse. Rare. Bold portraits.

From the Sierra Collection. Ex Gorny & Mosch 141 (10 October 2005), lot 206.

While bearing a similarity to issues of Thessalonika, such an attribution has been rejected by Touratsoglou (Die Münzstätte von Thessaloniki der römischen Kaiserzeit, p. 43, n. 69) on the grounds of difference in style and of die axis. In the brief discussion of the type the authors of RPC note the similarity to issues of Apamea, before ending (p. 717): “It is not clear if ΘE refers to Θεός (if so, why omit the last two letters?), or is part of another word such as an ethnic (hence the original attribution to Thessalonica).”